Frederick the Fair

Frederick the Fair
Frederick the Fair by Anton Boys
King of the Romans with Louis IV
Reign	19 October 1314 – 13 January 1330
Coronation	25 November 1314 (Bonn)
Predecessor	Henry VII
Successor	Louis IV
Duke of Austria and Styria until 1326 with Leopold I
Reign	1 May 1308 – 13 January 1330
Predecessor	Albert I
Successor	Albert II Otto the Merry
Born	1289 Vienna, Austria
Died	13 January 1330(1330-01-13) (aged 40) Gutenstein, Austria
Burial	Ducal Crypt (Vienna)
Spouse	Isabella of Aragon
Issue	Anna, Duchess of Bavaria
House	House of Habsburg
Father	Albert I of Germany
Mother	Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol

Frederick the Handsome (German: Friedrich der Schöne) or the Fair (c. 1289 – 13 January 1330), from the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria and Styria from 1308 as Frederick I as well as King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1314 (anti-king until 1325) as Frederick III until his death.

He was born in Vienna, the second son of King Albert I of Germany by his wife Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol, a scion of the Meinhardiner dynasty, and thereby a grandson of the first Habsburg king of Germany Rudolph I.

Still a minor, he and his elder brother Rudolph III had been vested with the duchies of Austria and Styria by their father in 1298. Upon Rudolph's early death in 1307 and the assassination of his father in 1308, he became the ruler of the Austrian and Styrian duchies on behalf of himself and his younger brothers. The royal title held by his father and grandfather however passed to Count Henry VII of Luxembourg, who was elected by six of seven votes, contrived by the mighty Archchancellor Peter von Aspelt, Elector and Prince-Archbishop of Mainz, a fierce opponent of late King Albert. Frederick had to abjure all claims to the German crown and in turn received the official affirmation of his fiefs by King Henry.